Harvesting grains is one (1) of the most difficult jobs to master, particularly with older equipment that is difficult to use or maintain. Therefore, a combine harvester has been invented that aids in quickly harvesting multiple rows of grain at a single pass. Such combines are equipped with means to add specific attachments, or “heads”, depending on the type of grain that needs to be harvested.
These heads can be mechanically adjusted with the use of hydraulics. With corn harvesting, the corn head includes a deck plate assembly having a pair of deck plates that is actuated by the hydraulics to adjust to the size of the corn stalk, the width between the rows, etc., in order to maximize the amount of grain that passes through the harvester. However, it is a desire on the part of the inventors to provide an automatic adjustment of the deck plates to separate the ear of the corn at the stalk, while minimizing any separation or degradation of the husk, in order to better conserve the corn when it is further processed by the combine. It is also a desire of the inventors to provide such adjustments easily at the control panel within the cab of the combine and at the deck plate itself. It is also a benefit to have such a means to be able to be quickly and efficiently mounted with minimal tools.
The present invention is beneficial over other similar automatic adjustable deck plate systems that only travel in a minimal range and thus cannot effectively be cleared of debris such as mud, snow, chaff, rust or other foreign material.
Various attempts have been made to solve problems found in automatic deck plate art. Among these are found in: U.S. Pat. and Pat. App. Pub. Nos. 2015/0208580 to Walker et al., 2008/0092507 to Bollig, U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,351 to Sousek, U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,969 to Becker, 2014/0230392 to Dybro et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 8,220,235 to Kowalchuk. These prior art references are representative of adjustable deck plates.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed. Thus, a need exists for a reliable automatically adjustable deck plate devices and to avoid the above-mentioned problems.